A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture

Rory McTurk is Professor of Icelandic Studies at the University of Leeds. Previously he has taught at the Universities of Lund and Copenhagen and at University College, Dublin. He is the author of Studies in Ragnars saga loðbrókar and its Major Scandinavian Analogues (1991) and Chaucer and the Norse and Celtic Worlds (2005), and has translated Kormáks saga for the Penguin Sagas of Warrior-Poets (2002).

Notes on Contributors viii

Maps xii

Introduction 1
Rory McTurk

1 Archaeology of Economy and Society 7
Orri Vésteinsson

2 Christian Biography 27
Margaret Cormack

3 Christian Poetry 43
Katrina Attwood

4 Continuity? The Icelandic Sagas in Post-Medieval Times 64
Jón Karl Helgason

5 Eddic Poetry 82
Terry Gunnell

6 Family Sagas 101
Vésteinn Ólason

7 Geography and Travel 119
Judith Jesch

8 Historical Background: Iceland 870–1400 136
Helgi Þorláksson

9 Historiography and Pseudo-History 155
Stefanie Würth

10 Language 173
Michael Barnes

11 Late Prose Fiction (lygiso¨gur) 190
Matthew Driscoll

12 Late Secular Poetry 205
Shaun Hughes

13 Laws 223
Gudmund Sandvik and Jón Viðar Sigurðsson

14 Manuscripts and Palaeography 245
Guðvarður Már Gunnlaugsson

15 Metre and Metrics 265
Russell Poole

16 Orality and Literacy in the Sagas of Icelanders 285
Gísli Sigurðsson

17 Pagan Myth and Religion 302
Peter Orton

18 The Post-Medieval Reception of Old Norse and Old Icelandic Literature 320
Andrew Wawn

19 Prose of Christian Instruction 338
Svanhildur Óskarsdóttir

20 Rhetoric and Style 354
Þórir Óskarsson

21 Romance (Translated riddarasögur) 372
Jürg Glauser

22 Royal Biography 388
Ármann Jakobsson

23 Runes 403
Patrik Larsson

24 Sagas of Contemporary History (Sturlunga saga): Texts and Research 427
Úlfar Bragason

25 Sagas of Icelandic Prehistory (fornaldarsögur) 447
Torfi H. Tulinius

26 Short Prose Narrative (þáttr) 462
Elizabeth Ashman Rowe and Joseph Harris

27 Skaldic Poetry 479
Diana Whaley

28 Social Institutions 503
Gunnar Karlsson

29 Women in Old Norse Poetry and Sagas 518
Judy Quinn

Index 536